PLU. But what new shapes are those upon thy head?
BEL. These are the ancient arms of cuckoldry, And these my dame hath kindly left to me; For which Belphegor shall be here derided, Unless your great infernal majesty Do solemnly proclaim, no devil shall scorn Hereafter still to wear the goodly horn.
PLU. This for thy service I will grant thee freely: All devils shall, as thou dost, like horns wear, And none shall scorn Belphegor's arms to bear. And now, Malbecco, hear thy latest doom. Since that thy first reports are justified By after-proofs, and women's looseness known, One plague more will I send upon the earth! Thou shalt assume a light and fiery shape, And so for ever live within the world; Dive into women's thoughts, into men's hearts; Raise up false rumours and suspicious fears; Put strange inventions into each man's mind; And for these actions they shall always call thee By no name else but fearful Jealousy. Go, Jealousy, begone; thou hast thy charge; Go, range about the world that is so large. And now, for joy Belphegor is return'd, The furies shall their tortures cast away, And all hell o'er we'll make it holiday.
[_It thundereth and lightneth. Exeunt omnes_.
[1] Cooper's "Athenae Cantabrig," ii. 306.
[2] Nash seems to have boasted of his birth earlier than the date of his "Lenten Stuff," for G. Harvey, in his "Four Letters," &c., 1592, says: "I have enquired what speciall cause the pennyless gentleman hath to brag of his birth, which giveth the woeful poverty good leave, even with his Stentor's voice, and in his rattling terms, to revive the pitiful history of Lazarillo de Thormes."
[3] Not of Hertfordshire, a mistake originally made by Shiel in his "Lives of the Poets," thence copied into Berkenhout's "Biographia Literaria," and subsequently into the last edition of the "Biographia Dramatica." [It is copied also by the editor of a reprint of Nash and Marlowe's "Dido," 1825.]
[5] "For coming from Venice the last summer, and taking Bergamo in my way homeward to England, it was my hap, sojourning there some four or five days, to light in fellowship with that famous _Francattip_ Harlequin, who, perceiving me to be an Englishman by my habit and speech, asked me many particulars of the order and manner of our plays, which he termed by the name of representations. Amongst other talk he enquired of me if I knew any such _Parabolano_ here in London as Signior _Chiarlatano_ Kempino. 'Very well,' quoth I, 'and have been often in his company.' He hearing me say so began to embrace me anew, and offered me all the courtesy he could for his sake, saying although he knew him not, yet for the report he had heard of his pleasance, he could not but be in love with his perfections being absent."